Philosophical Questions: Readings and Interactive Guides

Hardcover | September 21, 2004

In Philosophical Questions: Readings and Interactive Guides, James Fieser and Norman Lillegard make classic and contemporary philosophical writings genuinely accessible to students by incorporating numerous pedagogical aids throughout the book. Presenting the readings in manageable segments,they provide commentaries that elucidate difficult passages, explain archaic or technical terminology, and expand upon allusions to unfamiliar literature and arguments. In addition, "First Reactions" discussion questions, study questions, logic boxes, and chapter summaries require students to delvemore deeply into important issues and to reconstruct arguments in their own words. Some study questions test for minimal comprehension, while others are designed to provoke analysis and independent philosophical reflection. This extensive pedagogical support enables students to more easilycomprehend and engage with challenging material by establishing an interactive dialogue with the philosophers. This topically organized anthology and textbook includes numerous excerpts from contemporary philosophers, as well as from Western classics and major Eastern texts, encouraging students to explore connections between works from the Western and Eastern traditions and from different timeperiods. Topics covered include the philosophy of religion; human nature and the self; souls, minds, bodies, and machines; epistemology; ethics; and political philosophy. A glossary, portraits of philosophers, title pages of famous works, and thirteen specially commissioned cartoons are also included. Philosophical Questions: Readings and Interactive Guides is a rich and flexible volume ideal for introduction to philosophy courses. An Instructor's Manual withTest Questions will be available to adopters of the book. In addition, a Companion Website accompanies the book.

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In Philosophical Questions: Readings and Interactive Guides, James Fieser and Norman Lillegard make classic and contemporary philosophical writings genuinely accessible to students by incorporating numerous pedagogical aids throughout the book. Presenting the readings in manageable segments,they provide commentaries that elucidate diff...

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Table of Contents

Preface for the Instructor: 1. INTRODUCING THE BOOKA. Philosophical Questions and WonderB. Features of This BookC. A Little Logic2. THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGIONA. Challenges to Religious Belief1. David Hume: The Irrationality of Believing in Miracles2. Karl Marx: Religion as the Opium of the Masses3. Friedrich Nietzsche: The Death of GodB. The Problem of Evil1. Fyodor Dostoevsky: God and Human Suffering2. John L. Mackie: The Logical Problem of Evil3. William Rowe: The Logical Problem of Evil Challenged4. John Hick: A Soul-Making TheodicyC. Mysticism and Religious Experience1. Hindu Mysticism2. William James: The Limited Authority of Mystical Experiences3. Bertrand Russell: The Untrustworthiness of Mystical Experiences4. Richard Swinburne: The Trustworthiness of Religious ExperiencesD. The Ontological Argument for God's Existence1. Anselm's Proofs2. Gaunilo, Aquinas, and Kant: Against the Ontological ArgumentE. The Cosmological Argument for God's Existence1. Aquinas's Proofs2. Clarke's Proof and Hume's CriticismsF. The Design Argument for God's Existence1. David Hume: Against the Design Argument2. William Paley: The Design Argument Revisited3. Charles Darwin: Evolution and the Design Argument4. Robin Collins: The Fine-Tuning ArgumentG. Faith and Rationality1. Blaise Pascal: Waging on Belief in God2. William James: The Will to Believe3. Alvin Plantinga and Jay Van Hook: Can We Know God Without Arguments?3. HUMAN NATURE AND THE SELFA. Determinism Versus Free Will1. Baron d'Holbach: The Case for Determinism2. David Hume: Compatibilism3. Thomas Reid: In Defense of Free Will4. Richard Taylor: Determinism, Indeterminism, and Agency5. Harry Frankfurt: Determinism and Second-Order DesiresB. Identity and Survival1. Buddhism: No-Self and Transmigration of the Soul2. David Hume: The Self as a Bundle of Perceptions3. Terence Penelhum: Identity and SurvivalC. The Self as Active Being1. Soren Kierkegaard: The Self as Spirit2. Karl Marx: The Self as Worker3. Friedrich Nietzsche: The Self as the Will to Power4. Martin Heidegger: The Self as Being Toward DeathD. The Self Connected with a Larger Reality1. Hindu Upanishads: The Self-God2. Chuang-tzu: The Way of Nature3. Arne Naess: The Ecological Self4. Charles Darwin: Human Beings as Evolved Animals4. SOULS, MINDS, BODIES, AND MACHINESA. Ancient Western Views on Body, Soul, and Mind1. Materialism, Atoms, and Sensation: Democritus and Lucretius2. Body and Soul: Plato3. Soul as Form of the Body: AristotleB. Classic Hindu Views on Soul, Self, and God1. Katha Upanishad: The Outer Empirical Self and the Inner Self-God2. Sankara: Strict Monism3. Ramanuja: Qualified MonismC. Modern Views on Mind and Body1. Rene Descartes: Mental and Physical Substance2. Anne Conway: The Mixture of Body and Soul3. Benedict Spinoza and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz: Idealist Monism and ParallelismD. Twentieth-Century Views on Mind and Body1. Gilbert Ryle: Logical Behaviorism2. J.J.C. Smart and Paul Churchland: Mind-Brain Identity and Eliminative Materialism3. Jerry Fodor: FunctionalismE. Intentionality1. Franz Brentano: Intentionality as the Mark of the Mental2. Daniel Dennett: Kinds of Intentional PsychologyF. Minds and Machines1. Thomas Huxley: Humans as Machines2. Ludwig Wittgenstein and Paul Ziff: Reminders About Machines and Thinking3. John Searle: Minds, Brains, and the Chinese Room Argument4. William G. Lycan: A Reply to Searle5. John Haugeland: Natural Languages, AI, and Existential Holism5. EPISTEMOLOGYA. Skepticism and Certainty1. Chuang-tzu: The Relativity of All Things2. Sextus Empiricus: The Goals and Methods of Skepticism3. Rene Descartes: Dreams, Illusions, and the Evil Genius4. David Hume: Skepticism About the External World5. David Hume and Peter Strawson: The Problem of InductionB. Sources of Knowledge: Rationalism and Empiricism1. Plato: Knowledge Does Not Come from the Senses2. John Locke: All Knowledge Derives from the Senses3. John Searle: The Nature of PerceptionC. A Priori Knowledge1. David Hume: The Fork2. Immanuel Kant: Analytic and Synthetic Judgments3. Willard Van Orman Quine: One Dogma of EmpiricismD. Foundationalism and Coherence1. Rene Descartes and John Locke: Foundationalism2. Jonathan Dancy: Knowledge and Coherence3. Ernest Sosa: The Raft Versus the PyramidE. Problems with Justified Belief1. Edmund Gettier: True Belief Is Not Sufficient for Knowledge2. Alvin Plantinga: Justification, Internalism, and Warrant3. Keith Lehrer: Naturalist Externalism Versus Internalism4. Linda Zagzebski: Justified Belief and Intellectual VirtuesF. The Social Construction of Knowledge1. Thomas Kuhn: Social Factors in the Development of Knowledge and Science2. Lorraine Code: Epistemology and the Sex of the Knower3. Alan Sokal: Confusions in Constructivist Views6. ETHICSA. Are Moral Values Objective?1. Plato: Morality Grounded in Unchanging Spiritual Forms2. Sextus, Montaigne, and Mackie: Moral Relativism3. James Rachels: The Case Against Moral RelativismB. Can Human Conduct Be Selfless?1. Mencius and Hsun-tzu: Whether Human Nature Is Inherently Good or Evil2. Thomas Hobbes: The Selfish Origins of Pity and Charity3. Joseph Butler: Love of Others Not Opposed to Self-Love4. Edward O. Wilson: Altruism and SociobiologyC. Reason and Moral Judgments1. David Hume and John Searle: Can We Derive Ought from Is?2. Alfred Jules Ayer: Expressing Feelings3. Kurt Baier: Morality and the Best ReasonsD. Gender and Morality1. Mary Wollstonecraft: Rational Morality for Men and Women2. Carol Gilligan: Uniquely Female MoralityE. Virtues1. Aristotle: Virtue and Happiness2. Alasdair MacIntyre: Traditions and VirtuesF. Duties1. Samuel Pufendorf: Duties to God, Oneself, and Others2. Immanuel Kant: The Categorical Imperative3. William D. Ross: Prima Facie Duties4. Kant and Regan: Duties Toward AnimalsG. Pleasure and Consequences1. Epicurus: Hedonistic Ethical Egoism2. Jeremy Bentham: Utilitarian Calculus3. John Stuart Mill: Utilitarianism and Higher Pleasures7. POLITICAL PHILOSOPHYA. Anarchism1. Chuang-tzu: Governments Contrary to the Way of Nature2. Errico Malatesta: An Argument for Anarchy3. Robert Paul Wolff: The Conflict Between Authority and AutonomyB. Sources of Political Authority1. Samuel Pufendorf: Natural Law2. Thomas Hobbes: The Social Contract3. John Locke: Natural RightsC. Liberalism and Communitarianism1. John Rawls: Justice in the Original Position2. Robert Nozick: Libertarianism3. Michael J. Sandel: CommunitarianismD. Virtuous Leadership1. Confucianism: Virtuous Leaders at the Root of Good Government2. Plato: The Philosopher King3. Niccolo Machiavelli: Political SurvivalE. Limits of Political Coercion1. Cesare Beccaria: The Limited Purpose of Punishment2. John Stuart Mill: Preserving Individual Liberty3. Joel Feinberg: Offense to OthersF. Civil Obedience, Disobedience, and Revolution1. Plato: Obedience to the State2. Martin Luther King: Civil Disobedience3. John Locke: A Defense of RevolutionGlossary: Works Cited: Illustration Acknowledgments: Index: